


Hearts don't break around here

by stonestars



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, It's fluff y'all, have a proposal of sorts, i'm not even that good at fluff but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 22:10:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14066661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonestars/pseuds/stonestars
Summary: The day after things calm down from the revolution, Magnus knocks on the door to the Hammer and Tongs with a picnic basket in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other.





	Hearts don't break around here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jairephix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jairephix/gifts).



> This is a birthday gift for the lovely lovely Briar! I’m honestly not sure where this even went… it kind of took on a life of its own. But I guess have a proposal? Gosh I just went “fluff? Fluff. Here’s some fluff.” and then this happened. But of course, uh, the ending *could* be considered angsty if you interpret it a certain way…   
> (Title is in reference to the song "hearts don't break around here" by Ed Sheeran)

The day after things calm down from the revolution, Magnus knocks on the door to the Hammer and Tongs with a picnic basket in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. 

Julia laughs when she opens the door, putting a hand on her hip and looking him up and down. “Mags,” she teases. “I already told you I didn’t need a grand romantic gesture.”

Magnus smiles, holding the flowers out to her. “I have to take you out on a proper date,” he says, grinning even wider when she takes the flowers. “And you  _ promised _ to let me. Remember?”

“Okay, okay,” Julia says. “Just come in while I find a vase for these.” She pauses. “Actually, you  _ live _ here now, why am I inviting you inside?”

Magnus wags a finger at her. “I don’t live here until tomorrow,” he says, following her up the stairs that lead to the living space above the workshop.

Steven looks up as the two of them come into the kitchen. He’s sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and a newspaper, and he winks at Magnus when he sees the flowers. Magnus holds a finger to his lips while Julia’s back is turned. 

He and Julia have been talking about their relationship since the revolution had been just a whisper on the wind. Magnus still can’t forget the first time he’d seen Julia; it was during a town meeting, they’d been talking about yet  _ another _ tax imposed by Kalen and the people had been getting antsy when Julia stood up. She’d spoken, and everyone had listened, and Magnus had been captivated. He’d gone up to her after the meeting, and things had just taken off from there. 

But with the revolution, with the uncertainty that either of them would even  _ make  _ it past all of this, they’d tried not to commit to anything. 

Still, on the nights when everything got almost too much for Magnus, Julia would be there, running her fingers through his hair and reminding him that they would be okay. And on the nights when everything got too much for Julia, he would return the favor. By the time the revolution finally came to a close, they’d spent hours together, just talking and taking in each other’s company and finding comfort in it. Their relationship was not something that they could just ignore and move on from. 

And Magnus has no intentions of doing so. He’s already talked to Steven, because even though he knows that Julia is a woman who can make her own decisions and she doesn’t need Steven to give her hand to anyone, he still wants to check all of his boxes. 

It might be a little crazy; the thought of asking Julia to marry him when they haven’t known each other that long in the grand scheme of things and they haven’t even had the chance to go on many proper dates, but he just  _ knows.  _ He knows it like he knows that he loves carpentry and that there is a sun in the sky and he knows with a certainty that he does not know almost anything else. 

Julia finishes finding a vase for the flowers and takes off her work apron, giving Steven a kiss on the temple as she passes him. “I’ll be back later,” she says. 

Steven waves her off. “I’ve got the shop under control, go have fun Jules,” he tells her. 

-

There’s a hill outside of Raven’s Roost that is covered with flowers in the spring. Truth be told, Julia was the one who told him about it, but Magnus is still proud of the picnic he has set up in the shade of a tall tree on the hill.

Julia sees the blanket Magnus had placed there that morning as they climb the hill, her face lighting up. “You  _ remembered? _ ” she says, a breeze blowing her hair back. 

Magnus smiles. Julia had told him, once, while they were sitting in her living room, that she had always wanted to go on a picnic on this hill. She had told him  _ about  _ this hill. “Of course I did,” he says, rushing past her to set his basket down on the blanket. 

“This--” Julia says, not bothering to try to keep up “--this is why I love you.”

Magnus turns back to wink at her, nearly tripping but turning it into a deep bow.

Julia laughs as he bows, and Magnus gestures to the blanket in front of him for her to sit down.

“You really didn’t have to do all this, Mags,” she says as she does.

He sits down next to her. “I know,” he says. “But I wanted to.”

-

They spend the day letting themselves pretend there is nothing to worry about in the world except this hill and this grass and these flowers and each other. 

Magnus makes Julia a flower crown, his fingers adeptly working the stems of the flowers he picks in a way that makes Julia stare at him in amazement.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” she says, wonder in her voice. “Where’d you learn.”

Magnus looks down at the flowers in his hands, and back up at Julia. “I… dunno,” he says, adding another flower to the crown. “I guess I’ve just always known.”

_ (Taako taught him one day; they made flower crowns for the whole crew for what would’ve been Lucretia’s 21st birthday if time worked anywhere near normally for them. And after that, Magnus just started making them. He’d make them for Lup if she had a date with Barry or if they’d lost Taako and she was missing him terribly. He’d make them for Lucretia when she worked too much and he’d make them for Taako when he cried and sometimes he’d just make them to make them and give them out to the crew. _

_ His mind may not remember this, but his hands do.) _

-

Julia is smiling when he puts the crown on her head and he looks at her and it feels like his heart will burst with love and he blurts out the words he’d been turning over and over in his mind all day without thinking.

“I want to marry you,” Magnus says, and he’s not one to blush terribly but he flushes red and immediately starts to ramble-- “I mean, I know it’s soon and with the revolution and everything we haven’t really gotten the chance to go out together properly but I also know that everything could change in an instant and I don’t want to spend another second without you by my side and--”

Julia rolls her eyes lovingly, puts a finger to his lips, and looks up at him, serious. “ _ Magnus,” _ she says, her voice practically breaking with emotion. “Magnus, I feel the same way.”

He blinks at her a few times, disbelieving. Even though he knows she loves him it’s still nearly impossible for him to comprehend. “I-I-” he takes her hand. It’s all he can do not to start crying right then and there. “--you want this?” 

“You  _ know _ I do, Mags. I’ve told you before, haven’t I?” Julia smiles, a strong breeze picking up her flower crown and carrying it away towards the road below them. “I don’t want to spend another moment without you by my side, either.”

And Magnus laughs and kisses her and for even just a moment, the world is at peace.

(The flower crown that Magnus made for Julia is carried on the wind to the road and lands at someone’s feet.)

**Author's Note:**

> Fun little thing that I wrote but doesn’t fit into the actual fic--  
> “Perhaps that someone is a culinary wizard on tour in Raven’s Roost, and he picks up the crown and admires the handywork and wears it around his hat until the flowers wilt. Or perhaps it is a woman coming to town to check on the friend who has long forgotten her, and she recognizes the crown immediately and is reminded of the time she had everything.   
> Or, perhaps, it is the man who Magnus and Julia have worked so hard to usurp, a man who will come back in the near future and have his revenge. Perhaps this man picks up the flower crown and crushes it in his hand, vowing to return.   
> But perhaps it is just a passer-by, someone who does nothing more than glance down at the crown before moving on with their life.”


End file.
